The negotiation is a set of causes and conditions that repeatedly coincide to transform the initial interests in final terms with the objective of improving the positions in time, cost and scope of the parties.
Negotiation is an art for the mystical and it is a science for the methodology. The sensitivity of knowing when the client is about to make the final closing decision, charisma, cunning, personality, written and verbal communication, body language, chemistry and leadership are elements of art.
There are several common negotiating tactics. Having a series of tactics and a series of personality aspects to negotiate ensures 50% of the probability of success the other 50% is assured by the methodology.
Everything is negotiable and the purpose of the negotiation is to improve the conditions of time, resources and scope of the projects that we are carrying out. Anyone in the business world must have the necessary tools to emerge triumphant with the emblem of Not only Selling for Selling but Negotiating to Win.
Most people do not dare to negotiate in different situations, especially due to fear, simply because they do not ask, because of intimidation caused by various indirect factors in each situation, or because they do not stop to think that they could yield or concede that the other party will accept.
The factors that affect the negotiation are time, powers and information. Time is of the essence as sellers are in a race against time to close sales and forget about the negotiation process until the time of closing comes when the one who has the time against them loses or earns less than expected.
The powers of influence in the negotiation come from various sources such as the following: Standards, Experience, Education, Cultural, Imitation, Perception, Alternatives, Take Risks, Competition, Precedent among others.
Standards give power that is perceived as non-negotiable, yet everything is negotiable. For example, a tabulation of wages in companies dictated by market policies and values sets a standard in the industry by level of experience, degree of education, etc. When analyzed, this standard is an average of the mix of company employees, so it should be questioned when trying to be applied to a specific case and negotiated.
Experience and education create intimidation, this is when negotiating with someone with vast experience, high business rank or high degrees of study is cause of intimidation and should be weighed with the courage to face it and knowing the opponent. With the simple fact of knowing more about it you can reach favorable results than not knowing anything about your resume or your company. Behind an impressive resume or vast experience there is a human being with characteristics similar to ours, we must find and know him to negotiate and win both parties.
Culture belongs to the individual as sand belongs to the earth and light belongs to the sun. There are days when the sun does not rise completely and there are places on earth where the sand is not exactly the same appearance. Culture is the way in which people react to situations due to habits that they have created from their family environments since childhood and this changes from person to person. Knowing each other's culture, where they come from and how they would react in given circumstances is important to negotiate. There are cultures where negotiation is a fun game and there are cultures where negotiation is more formal and a necessary evil and they feel uncomfortable in the negotiation process.
Imitation gives a very powerful power of influence especially where the other party feels that they are negotiating with someone with similar bases and understandings, it gives confidence.
Perception is everything in negotiation, how we are perceived or how we perceive is directly proportional to how we act in the negotiation process.
Entering a negotiation with alternatives, different action plans gives us the flexibility to reach our objective in a more accurate way than if we do not think about options.
In a negotiation you must take risks from time to time. These risks, although well calculated, position us on the move to achieve higher profit margins. Playing roulette is high risk, high win. Just as roulette goes around and ends in a single number, so it will end in negotiation, it is a whole process that begins in one number and ends in another, but the magic is knowing when to take the risk in the process. Some strategies are to take this risk since too much time has been invested in the negotiation process, in this way the other part, since it has already invested time, will hardly allow us to go, but it is the opportunity to earn an extra point or several.
Promoting our clients to compare us to our competition gives us incredible power of perception. Where what we do in effect is to have high confidence in our products or services to the degree that we can afford to send our clients with the competition and that they return the same way that we send them making the final purchase with us.
The precedent is similar to an industry standard, we are limited to trading to what is established by the precedent or the standard. For this reason try to avoid precedents for any reason, something like "We would not like to set a precedent with this document…" is written as a legend at the end of the negotiation document.
Different sources of information such as email databases are a valuable tool for the negotiator, these well-researched sources generate knowledge of our environment, of our product or service, of our client or supplier and of their services and products as well as of the market, giving arms to the parties to play the negotiation game as efficiently as possible.
